“We think they’re sort of coming home,” Mayor Scott Smith said. “When I was in junior high and high school, the A’s were the team in Mesa with Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Rick Monday — the ASU trio.”

Oakland has trained at Phoenix Municipal Stadium since 1984. But their lease expires at the end of 2014, the same year the Phoenix stadium turns 50, and the team couldn’t reach an agreement with Phoenix about upgrading the ballpark.

Phoenix Muni is now seen as the most likely future home for the Arizona State University baseball team, which would be displaced if ASU moves ahead with plans to redevelop the site of Packard Stadium.

Last month ASU ended talks with the Chicago Cubs about sharing the Cubs complex being built in Mesa’s Riverview district.

Hohokam — Mesa’s second stadium by that name — opened in 1997 as the Cubs’ springtime home. Mesa agreed to build a new stadium after almost losing the Cubs to Florida in 2009.

The Cubs will leave Hohokam about a year from now, and Oakland plans to play at Muni through the 2014 spring season.

That will give Mesa a year to retrofit Hohokam and improve training facilities for the A’s at nearby Fitch Park.

City Manager Chris Brady said the work at Fitch and Hohokam is expected to cost about $20 million. Of that, Mesa will pay the first $15 million, and the city and the A’s will split the next $5 million, if that much is needed.

The A’s will cover all costs above $20 million.

Among the possible new amenities: A “grotto bar” dug into the outfield berm area and a food truck promenade beyond the outfield fence. Improvements also are planned for the main stadium seating area.

The deal with the A’s could bring Mesa’s total spending on baseball and related facilities over the next few years to more than $115 million.

The biggest chunk of that is the $84 million city commitment for the Cubs complex. Mesa is spending up to another $15 million for related infrastructure, including a reconstruction of Riverview Park and its popular lagoon.

Mesa hopes to recover some of its costs by seeking the $8 million that is reserved by the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority for Cactus League-related improvements at Hohokam Stadium.

The city plans to discuss that funding proposal with ASTA officials in early January.

“We believe it’s a no-brainer,” Smith said of using the regional funds for Hohokam. “Others, especially on the other side of town, may have a different opinion.”

Lew Wolff, the Athletics’ owner, is no stranger to Mesa. He owns the Hyatt Place hotel in the Riverview shopping area, just a stone’s throw from the new Cubs complex.

Wolff and Mesa officials were explicit Thursday on two points: The A’s will fulfill their contractural obligations with Phoenix, and the team approached Mesa about Hohokam, rather than Mesa trying to lure away another Cactus League squad.

Wolff said Phoenix had told the A’s it couldn’t afford to upgrade Muni to match the team’s desires. “We really needed a major remodeling of the Municipal Stadium,” he said. Lacking that, “we started looking for another option.”

The expiration of Oakland’s contract with Phoenix was perfectly timed, he said, with the Cubs’ departure from Hohokam, leaving a window during which Hohokam can be renovated before the A’s begin playing there.

“We try to fulfill all of our contracts,” Wolff said. “Sometimes we wish our players would do the same.”

Brady told The Republic that Mesa would have been willing to court a team from the Grapefruit League in Florida to backfill Hohokam, had it not been for Oakland volunteering to move.

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